Andrew W.K. returns to rock the Warped Tour

During the first five years of his career, Michigan-raised Andrew W.K. focused on party rock, scoring underground hits with the albums "I Get Wet" and "The Wolf." He was just as known during that period for the image on his first album's cover, which portrays him wearing a white T-shirt, with a stream of blood running from his nose onto his chin and neck.

But things have been quiet on the rock music front for the past five years. He instead put his efforts toward his solo work and motivational speaking. He yearned to "expand the whole idea of what it is that Andrew W.K. is."

"I did many solo tours," Andrew W.K., who was born Andrew Wilkes-Krier, said in an interview with SoundSpike. "I played with string quartets, or toured around doing lectures. I basically wanted to do everything I hadn't done in the first five years between 2000 and 2005. That's all we did was tour as a band. All we did. There was no time to do anything else, really. There wasn't even really time to record an album. Fortunately, most of the second album was written recorded when I did the first album. I was anticipating that were not going to have enough time to tour and show the world that we exist as much as possible. Once that was established as a degree, then it became time to do everything else."

"Everything else" included bringing his thoughts to colleges and universities, as well as concert halls, throughout the world.

"It's really ridiculous, too: How did this bloody-nosed party guy get to go to Yale and talk about philosophy?" he said. "It's completely ridiculous. I have no idea what I'm talking about and I make that very clear from the very beginning, in case people couldn't tell, but they usually can once I start talking. That's the whole point, if this guy can get up and make this big a fool out of himself, what's to stop anyone else from taking risks?"

Now that it's 2010 -- another five-year mark -- it's time for a new era. He is back on the road with his band, headlining the Warped Tour. He last played Warped Tour in 2003.

"It's perfect," he said about returning with his band. "You really appreciate it. That old saying, 'You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone,' if you make your life dynamic, it just makes it so much more exciting. If it's all the same all the time, it's much harder to appreciate it. If you can create some contrast, it really takes it to whole 'nother level."

For his set, Andrew W.K. and his band will play songs from all three of their "rock 'n' roll albums" -- "I Get Wet," "The Wolf" and the recent re-release, "Close Calls With Brick Walls."

"And we're going to be giving everything we have for the 40 minutes we have to play on stage," he said. "Then, I am bringing with me a 40-foot by 20-foot custom circus tent called the Party House. It's going to be air conditioned. It's going to be lit. It's going to have shade, and it's going to have all kinds of partying going on inside that I want people to come in and hang out with me in there. That's the most exciting part of it to me, besides playing our show.

"You can just play for 40 minutes and then just do whatever. But you should keep the party going all day and take advantage of all that time you have with all these amazing people that came out to enjoy themselves."